Updates from Frederick Smith, former Detroiter living in Los Angeles, and author of Play It Forward (January 2015), Right Side of the Wrong Bed (December 2007), and Down For Whatever (July 2005).
www.FrederickLSmith.com

Monday, October 29, 2007

November is National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo.

If forced to, could you start and finish a 50,000 word novel manuscript in a month?

Well, the good thing is you're not forced to... but thousands of folks around the world will be participating voluntarily in National Novel Writing Month, a yearly "contest" with yourself that takes place every November.

The goal. To start and finish a first draft of the novel you've always wanted to write. Doesn't matter how good, bad, or in between the first draft is. This contest is designed to motivate you toward your writing goals. And besides, you can always go back and rewrite or revise your first draft.

The contest goal, 50,000 words, will get you a short novel, but then you can work at your own pace to add the additional 15-20 thousand words for a novel-length work.

What do you say? You in? If you do the contest, that's about 1,600 words a day... or roughly four to five pages a day. If you do the contest, let me... us know how you're doing.fs

P.S. This contest does not apply to a manuscript you've already started working on, though I imagine you could psyche yourself into finishing the novel you've started writing. But for the fairness of NaNoWriMo, it's about starting and finishing an original piece of work.